1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to board games involving chance and skill. The board games are for pet lover""s and are based on movement of pieces along a path with spaces which dictate play activity.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
The following patents are representative of board games:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,026,082 issued to Charles E. Darrow describes a board game apparatus commonly known as xe2x80x9cMonopolyxe2x80x9d, which involves the use of a game board, dice, moveable pieces, houses, hotels, deeds, chance cards, opportunity cards, play money and rules.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,816 issued to Tracy L. Davis, et. al., is directed toward an educational and entertaining game that challenged the players knowledge of the Bible. The game is played by rolling a die and moving a game piece the appropriate number of spaces. Each gameboard space has an instruction thereon, that tells-the player what to do. The objective of the game is to acquire a predetermined number of points before your competitors. Points are gained by landing on an appropriate gameboard space which indicates a point reward for the correct answer to a Bible question. The gameboard spaces are so varied as to provide multiple options. Three sources of Bible questions exist depending on the gameboard space encountered. Additionally, gameboard spaces are randomly positioned through out the gameboard that cause the players to surrender points to the bank or other players. Success in the game is dependent upon knowledge of the writings contained within the Bible. Answers to the various questions are provided, but Bible citations are also included so that the-answer can be directly obtained from the Bible. Pathways between sections of the gameboard exist that may acquire a player to answer a specialized area of Bible based trivia. The difficulty and pace of the game are so designed as to challenge a player into learning all aspects of the Bible while having fun and interaction with other players.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,066 issued to Jack L. Cohen is directed toward an educational game apparatus which test""s the player""s ability to match a key word or key symbol to one or more subwords or sub-symbols. The key and list of possible answers are provided on cards., where the correct answer to the match is noted on the card back. Correct answers by a player translate into moves for the player""s pieces around the continuous playing path of the game board. To win the game, a player must land each of his playing pieces on individually lettered spaces of the playing path to spell out the name of the game (i.e., T, H, E, S, A, U, R, U, S). Players have the opportunity during the game to increase the number of moves awarded them by gambling on the correctness of their answers. Special rules for game play arise when a player lands on a space already occupied by an opponent.
Notwithstanding the above prior art, there are no teachings or suggestions that would render the present invention anticipated or obvious.
The present invention is a pet lover""s board game.
It includes a playing board having a predetermined continuous path with spaces for movement of pieces therealong in accordance with rules. The playing board may be square, rectangular, triangular, circular or any other shape, and may be flat or three dimensional (have topography). The playing board includes:
(i) marked breed spaces designating a specified breed of animal selected from cats, dogs, birds, horses and combinations thereof, said breed spaces identifying its specified breed by name, pictorial representation or combinations thereof, and has a specified cost to own value and a landing fee value;
(ii) marked action spaces, each designated so as to require a specified action of a player when a piece lands thereon. These may preferably be located at corners and may require a player to pay a fee, collect a fee, advance along the path of spaces, or wait a turn or even move backward; and,
(iii) marked event spaces, each designated so as to represent an event which may initiate a payment or other event of a player when a piece lands thereon. In preferred embodiments, the playing board also includes:
(iv) marked animal-related expense facility spaces selected from the group consisting of boarding, grooming, feeding, taxing, licensing and combinations thereof.
Also included in the board game is one or more random movement means for randomly determining numbers of spaces to be moved by players in accordance with rules. These may be a die, dice, spinner, electronic device or other known random movement directive mechanism. There is also a set of pet ownership papers for marked breed spaces provided to a player in exchange for payment of play money if a player qualifies to purchase and elects to purchase in accordance with rules.
There is a set of event cards corresponding to at least one marked event space to be read and acted upon by a player when a piece lands on a corresponding event space. For example, opportunity cards or chance cards may be used. Opportunity cards would typically be positive events and chance cards could be either positive or negative events.
There are also a plurality of different icon pieces for use by a plurality of players. There may be items of the same shape but different colors, items of different shapes, or items with some other unique identifying quality. They may be in the shape of animals or items relating thereto.
Play money in predetermined denominations is also included. These would be bills such as $5, $10, $100, $500, $1000, in sufficient numbers to avoid log jams in the game play, i.e. to avoid running out of change for purchases, fines, etc.
Rules define use of the aforesaid by order of play, use of the random movement means, movement of pieces, acquisition of ownership papers, sale of ownership papers, action space play, event space play, use of event cards, payments of landing fees, and how games may be won or lost.
In preferred embodiments, the event spaces include at least one event space requiring a player to take an event card and act upon it when that player""s piece lands upon it. Thus, the event cards are hidden and turned down before being taken and the player designate must take from the top of the deck. In most preferred embodiments there are at least two different event spaces, and two different collections of event cards, and each of the two different event spaces require a player to take and act upon an event card from a specific one of the two or different collections of event cards, e.g. opportunity cars and chance cards described above.
In other preferred embodiments of the present invention pet lover""s board game there is also a plurality of animal housing unit structures available for purchase to players owning marked breed spaces wherein when other players having a piece land on a marked breed space with at least one animal housing unit, they will pay increased landing fees in relationship to the number of animal housing units on that space landed upon. Also included may be a plurality of macro-animal housing unit structures for purchase or conversion, being equal or greater in value to a specified number of animal housing unit structures and requiring a greater landing fee. They could be converted by turning a specified number of animal housing unit structures. The animal housing unit structures may be shaped and/or named as cat beds, dog houses, horse stalls, horse barns, bird cages and combinations thereof, or any other shape or name designation as the designer may devise.
Typically, the set of ownership papers are individual cards corresponding to individual marked board spaces and include breed identification, cost of ownership and landing fees. They may be referred to as Pedigree papers or otherwise.
In one preferred embodiment, the pet lover""s board game of the present invention has marked breed spaces which are-dog breed spaces and the game is a dog lover""s board game. In this case, a play money holding tray may have a topographical shape of a dog bone. In another preferred embodiment, the marked breed spaces are cat breed spaces and the game is a cat lover""s board game.
The pet lover""s board game of claim 16 wherein said board game further comprises:
(1) a set of animal-related expense facility ownership papers for at least a portion of the animal-related expense facility spaces, and those have a specified cost to own value and a landing fee value. They may be food stores, bakeries, grooming facilities, vets, boarding facilities, training facilities, walking facilities, etc.